Microsoft said it is shutting down its digital assistant app Cortana this month, now more focused on modern-day AI advances, like its ChatGPT-like Bing Chat and other AI-powered productivity features across Windows and its web browser Edge. A support page confirms the end of Cortana as a standalone app in Windows starting from August 2023.

The company also confirmed to TechCrunch that the page was published earlier in June but refused to share more of its thinking on the matter beyond what was cited on the page itself.

Reading between the lines here from the explanation given, it seems that Microsoft viewed Cortana as something of a bridge to this new AI future where users will instead rely on a more intelligent chatbot running GPT-4, powered thanks to Microsoft's partnership with OpenAI. The company also announced in May that it will build this new ChatGPT-based Bing experience right into Windows 11.

Meanwhile, Windows users will be in a transition phase, where Cortana will still exist, but perhaps not as they are used to knowing. Indeed, though the standalone Windows app for Cortana will no longer be supported, and still available, but only as an integrated part of these applications, according to a statement by the company.

Even those Cortana-powered experiences may not live long, as Microsoft has already detailed its plans to bring Bing Chat to the enterprise, where Microsoft 365 Copilot will be integrated into its productivity software, plus Outlook, Teams and more.

"We know that this change may affect some of the ways you work in Windows, so we want to help you transition smoothly to the new options," Microsoft explains on the support page. "Instead of clicking the Cortana icon and launching the app to begin using voice, now you can use voice and satisfy your productivity needs through different tools."

The firm then directs users to Cortana alternatives such as Windows 11 voice access, which allows users to operate their PC using voice commands, the new AI-powered Bing, Microsoft 365 Copilot and Windows Copilot, which offers centralized AI assistance for Windows.

The website Windows Latest, independent of Microsoft, was first to report on the shut down of Cortana app, having noticed that the latest update for the Cortana Windows app caused the app to stop working. Upon launching the app, it displayed a message pointing out that "Cortana in Windows as a standalone app is deprecated," and then linked to a support page via a "Learn More" button.

Microsoft’s shift to Bing Chat from its first-gen assistant Cortana may be later mirrored by other Big Tech companies.

That is an interesting twist this week after Bloomberg reported Amazon elevated its head scientist for Alexa, Rohit Prasad, to head a team developing artificial general intelligence. That signals Amazon may be thinking about how Alexa could evolve into something more capable than the digital assistant it is today. Apple has also been developing its own generative AI tools, Bloomberg reported, but hasn't yet decided how they would be released to customers.